Retiring to Portugal ?

[CandidOP]

Ok, I am enquiring on behalf of my sister and her DH who are thinking about retiring to Portugal but have lots of questions and some reservations about the feasibility of this. I wondered if any Mnetters have done this and would share their experiences good and not so good about how it's going. A bit of background. My sis and DH have spent a large portion of their adult life living and working in different countries/continents and have been back in the UK since 2020. They have added to their NI buying up years they missed and have been paying full NI since 2020 but will still be unlikely to have a full state pension at retirement. They should just about have enough income to qualify for Portugals retirement visas.
They know the Algarve will be too expensive property wise but want to be near the coast for beach access and also because the heat won't be so bad by the sea. They have looked at the silver coast which appears to be a bit more affordable but can find relatively little info on retiring there. So - anyone who has? Which areas? Are the beaches OK for swimming or are they really surfing only. What are summer temperatures like? How is the healthcare? They are both ready to learn the language (and have already started) but wonder how vital that is to living there? Is travelling back to the UK pretty affordable?
The alternative would be to find somewhere by the coast in the UK and if necessary use equity release to provide money to escape the worst of the winters.

My brother lives out there on the Atlantic coast and it's good , cost less to live and travel , food and beaches are nice , warm summer mid 30s winter is 18 to 20 only drawback Is health care not so good we ,l moan about uk nhs but out there not so good , mostly with heart , lung , dimentia etc illness . All the best to them , if retired don't forget no pension increase unless 3 months in the uk ,would be frozen at this year's rate

Look for retiree/expat groups on FB. Post your questions. They are usually very helpful with "on the ground" advice.

I adore Portugal and my Portuguese colleagues are my favourite people at work, they’re ace. I think it’s a very family focused culture which can be tricky if you’re going without family, and from what my colleagues say it means that the health and social care setup will expect the family to do a lot. Fundamentally it’s a southern European country, it’s significantly poorer than we are used to up here. But clearly expats do manage to live good lives there. I’ll stop there as I’m never planning to emigrate.

“ if retired don't forget no pension increase unless 3 months in the uk ,would be frozen at this year's rate”

This is incorrect. Portugal is in the EEA. If you retire to a country within EEA, Switzerland or a country with a reciprocal social security agreement with the UK, the UK State Pension will continue to increase annually under the triple lock

Thanks everyone for your replies. originally myself and my DH were thinking of going with them but I have come to the conclusion that my ability to learn the language at retirement age will be a real barrier and I have noticed that my tolerance for temperatures over the mid twenties is not good these days!